Categories

A chronological exploration of literary or film milestones in geek culture from 1964 on. Excuse the ADHD as I discuss other things as well.

Menu

Widgets

Search

1968: Ultron and The Vision

Show of hands, who here likes robots? If you don’t, whatever you do, don’t go see Avengers: Age of Ultron. Why not? Because they’ll be everywhere. Star Wars will probably have one or two as well.So don’t see that either. Who am I kidding, of course you’ll go see them. Everyone will. Which is good, because I’ve heard Disney could use the money. I’ve heard they are going to have to release all of the old classic films from the Disney Vault so they have room for more money.

Anyways…Robots…Age of Ultron (don’t worry, we WILL get to Star Wars for sure)… You may ask “Who is Ultron?” and “Who is this Vision I keep hearing about, but hasn’t been in ANY marketing?” Well, everything you need to know is contained in Avengers #54 and 55, and #57 and 58. The first 2 issues are the introduction of Ultron (#54 only shows his face, but it’s part one of the story), while #57 introduces The Vision, and #58 rounds out the story with the origins of both characters. This can all be found in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol 6. They were written by Roy Thomas, with art by John Buscema

The story begins with The Avengers faithful butler sneak away to a meeting of the new Masters of Evil (essentially the evil Avengers) led by a character called the Crimson Cowl. He gives the MoE the blueprints to Avengers mansion. They then attack the mansion and trap each of the avengers. At the end of the issue, the Crimson Cowl who had been directing everything is revealed to have been a robot, and that there is another Crimson Cowl, who had really been pulling the strings, and it was … JARVIS!!!! The next issue continues and it turns out that Jarvis had not really been the crimson cowl at all it was the robot Ultron the whole time (the Jarvis switch seemed irrelevent and a waste of time but whateves. With the help of The Black Knight (a Master of Evil who is secretly good) Jarvis is able to help the avengers and they beat the Masters of Evil. Personally I didn’t think these issues were very good. The next 2 that I read however, were great.

The origin of The Vision. in issue 57, we first see The Vision walking through the rain, unaffected by it, because it was passing through him. He goes to Janet Van Dyne’s (the wasp’s) house to attack her. Before he is able to do so, he passes out. Hank Pym (Goliath) and Janet bring the Vision, who they realize is a “synthezoid” (an artificial human, also a made up word), back to the mansion. He, wakes up and starts to attack, but overcomes his programming. He reveals that he had been built by Ultron and takes the whole group of avengers back to where Ultron is so they can stop him. It turns out this was also part of his programming so that they could be trapped and Ultron would have his victory over them. But the Vision is more helpful than Ultron had suspected and Vision frees the avengers and they destroy Ultron. The next issue sees The Vision up against a panel of all the Avengers (present and former) as he goes for membership. He fights a few of them to show off his capabilities, but before being given membership status they discuss his origin. He takes them to where he had been built, which ends up being a former lab of Hank Pym’s. Pym remembers memories that had been hidden, and realizes that it was he who had created Ultron, and that Ultron had developed beyond his original programming and decided to end his “father”. In the end, they give the Vision membership and it is very emotional for the Vision. For comics of the day it is very powerful and much better origin than some characters. I may be biased because I had a reprint of Visions origin since my early days of collecting comics and I read that thing over and over again, but I think both it and the follow up issue that i had never read are both very good.

There you have it, check out the issues yourself for a better grasp of these characters. You can also check out these trades: